Thomas Weibel11.11.2025Street signposting in Switzerland takes the form of white writing on a blue background. But not in Bern’s old town, where the street signs are red, green, yellow, black and white. The City of Bern inherited this bright design from the French military campaign in 1798.
Thomas Weibel21.08.2025In the late 1860s, the rural canton of Fribourg was staking everything on industrialisation. Guillaume Ritter, a young engineer from Neuchâtel with bold plans for revolutionary ‘long-distance mechanical power transmission’ therefore came along at just the right moment.
Thomas Weibel21.01.2025The menhirs of Clendy are impressive remnants of the Stone Age. Both mystical and mysterious, the standing stones on the southern shore of Lake Neuchâtel take us on a journey back in time to a long-forgotten era.
Thomas Weibel05.09.2024For 125 years, the 'funiculaire' in the city of Fribourg has been running on a particular kind of renewable energy: wastewater. The 'funi', as the heritage-listed railway is known locally, is an important reminder of Fribourg's industrial past.
Thomas Weibel11.04.2024For generations, the clanking sound of bins being emptied was an everyday morning sound in Switzerland. The noise came from the hot-dip galvanised steel rubbish bins designed by resourceful Zurich entrepreneur Jakob Ochsner.
Thomas Weibel19.03.2024"Let others tell of storms and showers, I’ll only count your sunny hours" is a phrase that has graced countless poetry albums. Researchers from the University of Basel have now found out that the sundial has been in use for at least 3,200 years.
Thomas Weibel02.11.2023After decades of research, a seemingly innocuous find retrieved from a Roman shipwreck was revealed as a sensational scientific discovery, proving that the ancient Greeks were capable of making mechanical models of the cosmos with hitherto unimagined precision. The ‘Antikythera Mechanism’ is an analogue ‘calendar computer’.
Thomas Weibel28.07.2023Whereas sirens sound the alarm nowadays, hundreds of years ago it used to be watchtowers. Beacons could mobilise troops within a few hours, from the Rhine to Lake Geneva.
